An overhaul necessary in Kenyan Bursary schemes

With single-minded determination, 15-year-old Grace Awino left her home in Nambale, Busia County, on foot. Her destination was Butere Girls High School, the school of her dreams 40km away. From her accounts, she had chosen to commit her future to fate. All her life, she has endured hardship, and what looked like a little more discomfort did not daunt Grace.

Despite scoring 392 marks in the 2017 KCPE, Grace knew with certainty that her single mother could not facilitate her joining secondary school. What with the prohibitive fees. She had no school fees, no shoes, not even fare to get her to her school of choice.

As luck would have it, Grace's plight triggered a stampeded after it was highlighted in The Standard. He school fees have been taken care of by well-wishers.

Grace's case is not isolated. It is representative of the plight of thousands of bright and needy students across the country who need sponsors to further their education if only to change their lives. If it were not for media, Grace would have joined bright children from poor grounds who have been left behind because of the exorbitant school fees.

All over the world, education has remained the door opener; the great leveller; the choice-giver for millions. Those who feel that the rungs have been removed from the ladder of opportunity find recourse in a good education that often guarantees a good career and a better life in future.

Unfortunately, thousands of deserving youth fall off the school ladder for lack of fees.

It is shamefully outrageous that a country that lavishes its politicians with a generous assortment of freebies from car grants, mortgage, travel and sitting allowances and a comprehensive medical cover cannot put aside money to educate its youth. Worse still, when the money is put aside, it benefits the children of the who-is-who in society.

Eric Hoffer, the American author and philosopher says that "in a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth." So who do the leaders plan to inherit our country?

There have been half-hearted attempts to cater for the needy through such initiatives as the Presidential Secondary School Bursary (PSSB) for the orphans and vulnerable children from poor families. The budget for boarding school is Sh30,000 while day school is Sh15,000. There are no updates to ascertain the effectiveness of the PSSB scheme since its launch in 2013.

The constituency bursary fund is another of these noble efforts. But then it counts for little or nothing if deserving cases like Grace are left out either because they have no knowledge of what to do to get bursary or don't know one high up to facilitate.

It seems that as with all such good things, lack of follow-up and strong institutions to guarantee success, the bursaries are not reaching the intended or being exploited to full potential. A study by the Centre for Economic and Social Rights in 2009 exposed serious inconsistencies and limitations in governance in the awarding of bursaries.

Ten years later, it seems that corruption and discrimination still deny bright students from poor backgrounds the opportunity to attend school. One way of addressing this is a review and overhaul of the scheme to guarantee efficiency, transparency and fairness in the award process.

Leaders must do more to help citizens come out of the deep pit of poverty. The only way to achieve that is through education; making it easily available and affordable to all. With more resources allocated to education, with an empowered and enlightened population, it will be easy for the rest to fall in place.

For example, rather than build more prisons to accommodate those who society views as misfits, why not build more schools, equip them and send students there to preclude the need for jails?